Monday, September 8, 2008

A few of the agencies I work with donate some of their services or provide them at a fraction of regular cost to non-profit organizations and charities. I think that's a really great way to do business, but as a very small company (can one person be a company?) with very little revenue I can't afford to make a lot of grand charitable gestures like that.

But when I received an email saying a settlement house in my area was looking for somebody to help design a couple of flyers, I decided to volunteer. They already had the text, so it would just be a matter of laying it out and adding some design elements (of course, I was planning to offer my editorial services if need be, too!). I figured it would be a nice, easy little pro bono project. Good for me, good for my community. So I scheduled a meeting with the woman in charge of the project for this afternoon.

Sadly, my efforts were dashed when she called late this morning to cancel. Someone in another department gave her some autumn-themed paper, and she felt it would be a good idea to use it.

I told her to keep me in mind for future needs, so hopefully I'll get my opportunity to do a good deed sooner or later.

3 comments:

There are any number of ways we can help causes without draining our small resources. Try alerting people to causes such as TOMS Shoes or Dress for Success. Or use Good Search, which donates money for every search you conduct (like a charitable Google!). Then there's Free Rice, which is a definite help with the price of rice doubling.

We don't have to give tons of money. We only need to give information, time, and effort to help others.

You're absolutely right. As Amie, rather than as Written Expressions, I've done the Free Rice one before, and have donated to Dress for Success. I also donate clothes to several other charitable organizations and participate in the Komen Race for the Cure every year. But this would have been my first philanthropic endeavor as a business. I was a little bummed at taking 2nd to paper, but I guess they wouldn't be a very responsible organization if they didn't make the best use of the resources they have on hand!

I'll check out the other ideas, and I encourage my other readers to do the same (Lori's never steered me wrong when it comes to links!).

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I have more than 10 years of experience as a writer and editor. A quick study with an eye for detail, I partner with companies in any industry, identifying and appealing to their unique target audience.
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